Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

LCT and Loncin are getting their names out there.  Now Toro is going with Loncin.  Ariens has LCT on all three of their Sno-Tek blowers.  Husqvarna has the new revived LCT Snow King (Tecumseh "revival") on some of their blowers.  So who's best?  Will Briggs end up putting engines only on their own Simplicity, JD, Snapper models?

You are still going to see batches of QC issues, manufacturing I know quite well. I read a fair amount about what is going on in China and the problems they have.

Ariens has their own QC dept you can be 100% certain of that. Most companies do. The thing is you can't test every engine. You test it in lots like every 1,000 engines or whatever number they feel is appropriate.

As the old saying goes "Many a slip twixt the cup and the lip."

Now when a company finds a bad product on a teardown they will stop and start checking a huge amount of product until they get to both ends. The defective batches are more frequent than people realize.

Many companies catch it and it's good, but cutting corners is SOP in China and goes on daily.

This isn't just Ariens or Loncin or just snowblowers this is almost everything they produce. I've seen a lot of screwups in our own shop and I know how we fix things. Or rather did since the plant will be shutdown for good in a few days.

Maybe so Steve but generally speaking, from what I've read (and experienced), the consensus regarding Chinese engines has been pretty much positive.  There are also certain Chinese companies who have improved their products to get a leg up on their competitors.  LCT, Champion, Loncin and Kippor seem to be building a good reputation in the Americas.   And let's not forget that you can buy a 6 h.p. Chonda for as little as $99.00.   For that kind of money, a five year engine life wouldn't be all that bad.

Another thing I want to add is that back in the late 70's the North America auto industry did some serious cost cutting to improve the bottom line.  The result was some of the worst automobiles ever to fall apart on our highways.   So the Chinese aren't alone when it comes to compromising quality.  If it weren't for the Japanese,  our auto manufacturers would still be pumping out junk.

Oh you can be certain cost cutting goes on all the time in every country.

McDonalds knows eaxctly how much ketchup csts and how much to put on each burger saving a ton of money every year.

American manufacturing went south a while back. My soon to be former employer used a lot of vendors and we got junk it that was just so messed up it was amazing they had the guts to ship it to us!

I could recount enless stories (all true) about the BS that is pulled every single day, but I won't.

China cuts corners whereever and whenever they can. This sadly is true across the board in manufacturing in the US as well as other countries.

Maybe someday Loncin will be up there but right now it's up and coming and still doesn't have a long enough track record.

I agree with pretty much everything you say Steve.  All of the Chinese brands need a lot more time in the field to qualify their overall quality. 

From what I've read, the most notable failure in Chinese engines was the quality of the fasteners used in critical applications.  Many of the bolts and screws in the earlier engines were made of very soft steel which would loosen off easily and break when tightened.  Replacing the weak fasteners (head bolts for instance) was one way to improve the engine's reliability.   Other than that, I've not heard of any other serious quality issues and I've not heard much lately of poor fasteners either.  I know the two Chonda engines I have seem to be very nice units.  Visually, they look very nicely built.  Clean castings, nice fit and finish.  the paint is even nice. 

I know you are the expert when it comes to engines and the nuts and bolts of snowblowers.

I'm just concerned about quality over time with these companies. It's good to know that some of them are doing a good job.

borat wrote:
I can't comment on longevity because I don't  have any experience with Chinese engines.

Many years ago, and maybe still for some small private shops now, quality meant that the products you produced would last for a long time (maybe generations), it was/is a point of pride for the craftsman. Now the words "planned obsolescence" are more the norm. Hence Borat's comment. Is it better to buy something cheap that will last a couple of years, then replace it when it breaks, and over & over? Big business sure thinks so, but I'm not so sure, since it will always break when you most need it & it's most inconvenient.
I worked in the purchasing department of a very large multinational for 25 years so I know what the word Quality means to them, and it's not the same thing it means to most of us. For them, the term "quality" means you build it to customer specs, no more and less if you can get away with it, and that goes for any big corporation anywhere. They all report to the shareholders, and shareholders want only one thing, PROFIT, at any cost. I once had a VP tell me that our shareholders were the most important thing to our company!!! "What about the  customers?" I asked. "not as important as the shareholders!" he replied.

Don't blame the Chinese, their shareholders only want their piece of the pie!

Occupy Wall Street was right, it's time the 99% stood up and demanded some of the pie!

I'll start buying chinese engines when they show me a detailed parts list and a guarantee that parts will be available for, say, 20 years.  I've got an old Isuzu Trooper that is in quite good condition, but it had to sit idle for lack of an unavailable (from both manufacturer and after market sources) emergency brake cable that I eventually rounded up at a junk yard.  Needed some reconditioning, but works OK now.

Dr_Woof wrote:
I don't know about all of the chinese engines but the older greyhound engines sold by harbor freight were direct knoffoffs of the Honda GX series and honda parts will interchange.

GtWtNorth wrote:

Thanks for sharing your view.

Customers showed to be as important as shareholders in the case of Netflix recently.

I do not blame the Chinese, it is the American corporations that outsource to China and ask for low quality products. Corporations some like to call as 'people'...

blumonster wrote:

Too easy to blame Chinese and ethanol for everything wrong with OPE, as if America is the only country that knows how to do anything right.

As if bargain hungry Walmart/Costco/HD customer has nothing to do with it.   Aint' going to get anything cheap coming out of Japan or USA.

I'm surprised there aren't more countries hating the Western world for the lifestyle, glut, and appetite.